COVID response still dominated among county’s news in 2021
Twelve months ago, the year 2021 was widely welcomed as a fresh start.
As Osceola County followed the rest of the world in returning to something resembling more of a “normal,” the focus was back on returning to work, to school and to the places we were used to.
Here’s a look back at the News-Gazette’s top 2021 headlines:
COVID-19: from testing to vaccines, and back again.
After numerous testing sites opened around the county in 2020, the focus turned to vaccinations, as Osceola County received its first doses of the Moderna vaccine right after Jan. 1, going exclusively then to those over age 65 and frontline healthcare workers. Still, that first supply ran out quickly.
But supply quickly rose to meet demand — chains like Wal-Mart, Walgreens and CVS pharmacies received allotments along with local spots like St. Cloud’s Prescriptions Unlimited — and Osceola County’s residents signed up, lined up and rolled up their sleeves. Entering this Christmas, over 81 percent of residents had received at least one dose, the highest in Central Florida.
That helped a return to normalcy, as institutions that welcomed the public reopened, including Give Kids the World Village and the Osceola County Library System, and the Osceola County School District opened the 2021-22 school year with masks optional. But even they’d return to a 60-day mask mandate in September and October while waiting vaccine manufacturers to get clearance to give shots to students as young as 5 years old.
Bracey incident sparks new SRO, police training.
Osceola County became a national center for attention when video surfaced showing
Osceola County Sheriff ’s Deputy Ethan Fournier, the Liberty High school resource officer, slam 16-year-old student Taylor Bracey to a concrete sidewalk while trying to subdue her, knocking her unconscious.
Both the Sheriff ’s Office and Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigated. While Taylor’s attorneys, parents, activists and some Liberty High students said nothing justifies Fournier’s actions and that he should have been fired and charged with assault, the 9th District State Attorney announced in August that Fournier would not face criminal charges. He was removed as Liberty’s SRO.
The incident led to the creation of an Osceola School District task force to studying the county’s school resource officer program, and the Kissimmee Police Department created new training in how to handle critical moments when it involves minors.
Nicole Montalvo’s killers found guilty and sentenced.
After a trial that lasted over two weeks, a jury needed just 90 minutes to find Nicole Montalvo’s estranged husband and father-in-law guilty of killing the St. Cloud mother.
Angel Rivera, 66, and Christopher Otero-Rivera, 33, were convicted of second-degree murder, abuse of a dead human body and tampering with evidence on April 22. Prosecutors said the men killed Montalvo in October 2019 because they wanted full custody of the 8-year-old son Montalvo shared with Otero-Rivera. They buried her mutilated body on their rural St. Cloud property. Days before, Montalvo was reported missing.
On July 21, Judge Keith Carsten sentenced both to life in prison, ruling them “jointly liable” for the murder.
In an ironic twist of fate, Florida corrections and the Rivera family confirmed Angel Rivera, Montalvo’s father in law, died from COVID-19 complications in prison on Sept. 21.
Sheriff addresses street racers, has them Take It To The Track.
An April 2 street racing incident on U.S. Highway 192 in the Four Corners area claimed two lives, including an 11-year-old girl.
Osceola County Sheriff Marcos Lopez decided right away: one death to street racing is too many.
“Families are losing loved ones to this reckless and senseless behavior on public roadways,” Lopez said. “It needs to stop.”
The result was “Take It To the Track,” offering those who want to race a safe place to do it – not on a street mixing with other drivers – where Lopez and his law enforcement brethren honored 11-yearold Greyshalis Flores.
It was four weeks of controlled drag racing at Orlando SpeedWorld in east Orange County, the closest such facility to Osceola County. It attracted over 200 racers from all over the area, sending cars, motorcycles, trucks down the quartermile track in search of that 10-second run.
St. Cloud City Council member Chuck Cooper passes.
The City of St. Cloud was shocked by the passing of Charles E. “Chuck” Cooper on June 12 at the age of 72.
He served on the board from 1985-1988 and 1994- 1995, then won elections again in 2016 and 2020.
“Chuck Cooper was passionate about the City of St. Cloud,” said City Manager William Sturgeon. “He didn’t hesitate to let you know when he disagreed with you, and I respected that. He always did what he thought was best for the citizens and the city.”
Cooper’s passing in the first year of a team necessitated a special election for his replacement. Kolby Urban and Jose Martinez were the leading vote-getters out of a five-way primary on Oct. 5, and Urban, who ran against Cooper in 2020, earned the seat at age 31, the youngest Council member in four decades.
Tassels back in the air.
Much like most public gatherings in 2020, in-person graduation ceremonies were canceled — not for a lack of effort in Osceola County — but returned to Osceola Heritage Park. Some 5,000 graduates crossed the stage, earning $112 million in scholarships, per the Osceola School District.
PepsiCo investment near Poinciana SunRail station.
PepsiCo formally announced plans in August to build a $180 million, 355,000 square-foot megafulfillment center that will could employ 180 people in full-time jobs in the Poinciana area. It would be along John Young Parkway near Poinciana Boulevard and Old Tampa Highway, convenient to the Poinciana SunRail station. Per the county,
Per the county, Construction will begin in early 2022, hiring for the new jobs will begin in late 2023 and the site will be operational by early 2024.
“Opportunities like this don’t happen every day, but the creation of 180 new jobs is something needed for our residents,” said County Commissioner Brandon Arrington, whose District 3 includes the site.
New NeoCity investment.
In a year that saw Minnesota’s SkyWater Technology take over for UCF as anchor tenant at Osceola County’s semiconductor fabrication facility, helping fulfill $30 million in Department of Defense semiconductor contracts, the county reached an agreement with Korean company DSUS and developer Young-hwa Song. The county sold land that DSUS would then develop into a mixed-use city center with job centers, residential units, hotels, a multi-story commercial office tower, dining and entertainment space.
The investment — the first deal that puts the “City” in NeoCity — could have an impact of $1.2 billion.
A new county logo — and the rapid reaction.
At the Oct. 6 State of the County presentation, Osceola paired its new marketing tag — “Be first to what’s next” — with a new county logo. “Some may see a diamond, some may see a compass. It all points to the future,” Arrington said at the unveiling.
But all that many county residents saw was red, opposing it in social media, saying it was, “rebranding all the county’s history away; ”Does not represent what our county is about” and calling it “Cold, like a tech company logo. Devoid of meaning and purpose.”
Some folks even took to picketing outside the County Administration building ahead of the Oct. 18 Commission meeting, their form of protest since they couldn’t address it at the meeting during the Hear The Audience segment because it wasn’t an agenda item — another hot-button issue.
The previous Osceola County logo was retained as the county seal and a “Heritage” logo that can appear on official documents.
Triple murder in BVL
Kevin Torres, 41, faces 20 charges after his arrest in a stolen car in Orange County, following a Nov. 15 triple homicide at a Buenaventura Lakes apartment complex.
The Osceola County Sheriff ’s Office alleges that Torres shot and killed Justin Atkinson, 43, his son Calvin, 16, and Anthony Mull, 25, in one of the most gruesome cases in the county in some time.
Sheriff Marcos Lopez said he was struck by the oddity of the case. Lopez said Torres had been arrested for seven felonies among his 46 arrests. A check of Osceola County court records shows a 2017 Osceola case when prosecutors allege he fled from police in a highspeed chase.
“You don’t have triple homicides every day,” he said. “Rest assured, this is an isolated incident. You are safe.”
Torres’ trial is currently scheduled to begin Feb. 28.
An honorable mention.
When you work for a newspaper, one of your mottos is this: report the news, don’t be the news.
Sometimes, when it’s for a greater good, it just … happens.
On June 24, Adam Anderson called the newsroom to speak with someone about problems he’s having regarding custody of his 2-year-old daughter. He said police were coming to arrest him at his Kissimmee home. He called back later and spoke with staff member Jody Gillespie.
“He feared he was going to be killed. I was trying to calm him down. I told him we didn’t want anyone to get hurt. He wanted his daughter to know he loved her and I told him he needed to be alive to tell her. I told him to talk to the police and he could address his issues with the judicial system from there, but he needed to be alive to do that,” Gillespie said. By then, deputies
By then, deputies from the Osceola County Sheriff ’s Office were on the scene. Gillespie stayed on the phone with him while publisher Rochelle Stidham spoke to Sheriff ’s Office officials.
“The negotiators asked if we could tell him to come out peacefully,” Stidham said. Jodi really helped talk him through this. It could have ended much worse.”
